ramp

☆ a means for boarding or leaving a plane, as a staircase on wheels rolled up to the door

a concave bend or curve where a handrail or coping changes its direction, as at a staircase landing

a sloping runway for launching boats, as from trailers

Origin of ramp

French rampe ; from Old French ramper: see ramp

ramp Idioms

ramp up

Informal to increase or augment: to ramp up factory production

intransitive verb

to stand upright on the hind legs

Heraldry to be depicted rampant

to assume a threatening posture

to move or rush threateningly, violently, or with fury; rampage

Origin of ramp

Middle English rampen ; from Old French ramper, to climb, clamber ; from Frankish an unverified form rampon, to cramp together ; from Germanic an unverified form rampa, claw, akin to Middle Dutch ramp, cramp ; from Indo-European an unverified form (s)kremb-, variant, variety of base an unverified form (s)kerb(h)-, to twist, curve from source shrimp, harp

noun

the act of ramping

noun

a wild leek (Allium tricoccum) having a pair of broad basal leaves in spring, followed by a naked flower stalk: its strongly flavored bulbs are edible

Origin of ramp

taken as singular of ramps, variant, variety of dialect, dialectal rams, wild garlic ; from Middle English ; from Old English hramsa, wild garlic ; from Indo-European base an unverified form krem- from source Classical Greek kremyon, Middle Irish crem, Lithuanian kermùšė

ramp

noun

An inclined surface or roadway connecting different levels.

A mobile staircase by which passengers board and leave an aircraft.

A concave bend of a handrail where a sharp change in level or direction occurs, as at a stair landing.

Phrasal Verbs: ramp down To decrease in volume, amount, or rate: As the project ramped down, several employees were laid off.ramp up To increase in volume, amount, or rate: The factory ramped up production to meet the increased demand.

Origin of ramp

French rampe, from ramper, to slope, rise up, from Old French; see ramp2.

intransitive verb

ramped, ramp·ing, ramps

To rush around or act in a threatening or violent manner.

To assume a threatening stance, as in rearing up on hindlegs.

Heraldry To stand in the rampant position.

Origin of ramp

Middle English rampen, from Old French ramper, to rear, rise up, of Germanic origin.

Related Forms:

ramp

noun

also ramps

noun

A plant (Allium tricoccum) of the eastern United States having small bulbs and young leaves that are edible and have a pungent onionlike flavor. Also called wild leek.

Words near ramp in the dictionary

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Ramp hawkers were peddling “methods,” low priced sure-fire theories guaranteed to predict bottle twitches and beat the whole Minimax game. The hawkers were ignored by the hurrying throngs of people; anybody with a genuine system of prediction would be using it, not selling it. Philip Kindred Dick